4 / Karnsa Begins His Persecutions

After Vasudeva adjusted all the doors and gates, the gatekeepers awoke
and heard the newborn child crying. Kamsa was waiting to hear the news
of the child’s birth, and the gatekeepers immediately approached him and
informed him that the child was born. At that time, Kamsa got up from
his bed very quickly and exclaimed, “Now the cruel death of my life is
born!” Kamsa became perplexed now that his death was approaching, and
his hair stood on end. Immediately he proceeded toward the place where
the child was born.

Devaki, on seeing her brother approaching, prayed in a very meek
attitude to Kamsa: ‘“‘My dear brother, please do not kill this female child.
I promise that this child will be the wife of your son; therefore don’t kill
her. You are not to be killed by any female child. That was the omen. You
are to be killed by a male child, so please do not kill her. My dear brother,
you have killed so many of my children who were just born, shining as
the sun. That is not your fault. You have been advised by demoniac friends
to kill my children. But now I beg you to excuse this girl. Let her live as
my daughter.”

Kamsa was so cruel that he did not listen to the beautiful prayers of his
sister Devaki. He forcibly grabbed the newborn child to rebuke his sister
and attempted to dash her on the stone mercilessly. This is a graphic
example of a cruel brother who could sacrifice all relationships for the
sake of personal gratification. But immediately the child slipped out of
his hands, went up in the sky and appeared with eight arms as the younger
sister of Visnu. She was decorated with a nice dress and flower garlands
and ornaments; in her eight hands she held a bow, lancet, arrows, bell,
conchshell, disc, club and shield.

Seeing the appearance of the child (who was actually the goddess
Durga), all the demigods from different planets like Siddhaloka, Carana-

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